TITLE: DNA Tower
ARTIST: Dale Chihuly
DATE: 2003
MATERIALS: glass, steel, wood
DIMENSIONS: 20′ 3″ x 4′ 8″
TYPE: sculpture
DNA Tower (2003) consists of 1,200 blue, yellow, and pink spheres attached to a central core in a spiraling design that imitates the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The tower comes in at 20 feet tall; for comparison, if you stretched out the DNA in just one human cell, it would amount to around six feet of DNA!
Internationally-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly created DNA Tower to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the IU School of Medicine, which also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, the self-replicating material that carriers genetic information.
A spectacular testament to the bonds between structure and suprise, unity and diversity, this jubilant tower locates hope in reproductive processes where selves produce others and similarity breeds diversity.
Chihuly’s iconic work can also be found at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, as well as Newfields.
To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Tower
, which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design
and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A
Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”